Circular knitting machine



. July 15, 1947. Q F, MANGER ETAL 2,423,989

CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE Filed Mamnl, 1245 4 sheets-sheet 1 July/ 15, 1,947. c. F. MANGER `lar/1.1. 2,423,939.

j CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE Filed March 19, 1945 4 beets-sheet 2 i J 136i; f J39- 75 l: Y l y Elv 50 ZA f .TMve/vra@ v July 15, l947 c. F. MANGER ErA| CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE r Filed March 19, 1945 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 v/ Y @uw SW l July 15, 1947. Y C, F MANGER ETAL 2,423,989

' CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE ,Filed March 19, 1945 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented July 15, '194.7r

CIRCULAR KNITTING- MACIHNE Charles Frederick Manger, George Alfred Buswell,

and Roland Peberdy, Leicester, England, assignors to The Bentley Engineering Company Limited, Leicester, England, a British company Application March 19,1945, Serial N0. l583,560

In Great Britain March 14, 1944 l 4 claims. (01.: ssfso) This invention is for improvements in or relating to circular knitting machines.

Circular knitting machines have heretofore been provided with needle-selecting mechanism for producing pattern and other effects in the knitted fabric by varying the normal operation of selected needles, such for instance as by causing said needles to form floated stitches, tuck stitches or the like, or in a rib-knitting machine, by varying the rib knitting by transferring such needles from one needle cylinder to the other.

Needle-selecting mechanism hereinafter described as illustrative of the present invention is of the type comprising a series of needles, with or without needle jacks or sliders, a cam to operate said jacks or sliders, a series of other elements, hereinafter termed selectors adapted to act upon said needle, jacks or sliders to Vary the operative relation of the latter with the said cam, and pattern means for selectively operating the said selectors. The present invention is concerned solely with needle-selecting mechanism of the above type, which mechanism-for the sake of conciseness-is hereinafter referred to as needle-selecting mechanism of the type described.

An object of the present invention is to provide means whereby the continuity of the patterning over the instep portion of a hose or half-hose will be maintained with greater accuracy than heretofore by a novel method of controlling the needles at the commencement of and during the knitting of the heel portion.

One machine of the nature contemplated by the present invention is described in the specilication of prior Letters Patent No, 2,019,396, and in the specilic embodiment t be described later and including the improvements according to the present invention a machine similar to that described and illustrated in the said prior specication will be shown.

In the practice of the present invention, pattern is produced by controlling certain of the needles to follow the normal knitting track and at the same time controlling other needles so that they will not clear their loops below the latches of the needles and will in consequence retain their loops at the knitting point instead of casting them over into the fabric as they would do under normal knitting conditions. Such needles may be made to receive the new yarn at the feed point cr to miss it entirely thereby producing either tuck stitch or oat stitch patterns.

Hitherto, it has been customary at the beginning of the heel to raise all needles (and their associated sliders if present) which are not to beV employed in knitting the heel to a height above the normal knitting track where they will remain out of action during the knitting of the heel. For this purpose the needles, or sliders, in the instep half of the machine, are provided with longer knitting butts than those in the heel half and a cam is brought into a position where it raises the long butts only. If this method were adopted in the machine contemplated by the present invention in which patterns areproduced in the manner above described,Y it would not be possible ,to lowerfall the long butt needles at the end of the heel and to reselect them according to the pattern before they reach the knitting point, and the continuity of the pattern onv thefront of thearticle would be interrupted. Y

According to the present invention, in a circular' knitting machine having needle selecting mechanism of the type described, pattern means is provided operative in conjunction with the selectors, whenv a heel is to be knitted, to select the needles into three groups whereby some are di-` rected into a low non-knitting track, some Vare directedk into a high non-knitting track,v and others are permitted to remain in the normal knitting track;

Conveniently'those needles which are directed into the low non-knitting track are those which, in the last patterning course, had been selected notl to knit.

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood one preferred example will now be described with .the aid of the accompanying draw-4 ings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of part of a circular knitting machine having applied thereto, one construction of needle-selecting mechanis according to the present invention,

Figure 2 is a plan of certain of the parts shown in Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a sectional elevation ofthe parts shown in Figure 2,

Figures 4 and 5 are detail views showing, respectively, a jack and a, selector in two diierent positions, v

Figure 6 is a detail view of means for operating aselector,

Figure 'l shows a schematic layout of the ca system of the machine,

Figure 8, on an enlarged scale, diagrammatically illustrates the provision of the additional butts on the selecto-rs and the additional operating levers required by the present invention, and

Figures 9 and 10 are sectional Viewsl similar to Figure 3 showing a modiiied means of operating the selectors and modiiied selectors in two dif; ferent positions of operation.

Like reference numerals indicate like characters in all gures of the drawings.

The machine illustrated in the drawings comprises a circular bed plate 19 which is secured to the frame of the machine. Above the bed plate 19 and held spaced therefrom by means including pillars 12 is a second bed plate 14 by which the cam box 16 for the lower or plain needle cylinder 18 is supported. The needle cylinder 18 is rotated about its axis by connections from the main shaft of the machine, said con-l nections including a gear wheel 89 (Figure 3) which is attached to the lower end of the needle cylinder 18.

The rst of said constructions comprises a pattern drum 82 (Figure 1) located on the outer side of and near the bottom end of the plain needle cylinder 18, and adapted to rotate about an axis parallel with the axis of said cylinder. The pattern drum 82 is rotatably mounted upon a stud 84 (Figure 3) projecting upwardly from a plate 86 secured to the bed plate 19 and comprises an inner core-like portion 88 surrounded by an outer shell 90, the two parts 38 and 90 being secured together by screws 92. The pattern drum is held frictionally against unwanted movement by a spring 94 in compression between two washers 95 and 98 loose on the stud 94, the upper washer 95 being backed up by a nut |99 by the turning of which the degree of compression of the spring 94 can be adjusted. The pattern drum 82 is intermittently rotated by a pawl-and-ratchet mechanism comprising a ratchet wheel |92 (Figure 1) secured to the lower end of the drum, the teeth of which ratchet Wheel are engaged by a pawl IM, pivotally mounted upon a lever |35 that can swing about the drum axis and is actuated by a cam |08 carried upon the gear wheel 89. Suitably arranged springs and ||2 maintain, re.

spectively, the pawl |94 in engagementrwith the ratchet wheel |02 and the lever |95 in the path of the cam |98.

The peripheral surface of the pattern drum 82 is adapted to support a number of detachable pins or cam pieces ||4 to which end the outer shell 99 of the drum is provided with a number of holes ||6 arranged in rows extending around the drum, there being in the present instance fourteen tiers of rows of these holes. In these holes, pins or cam pieces ||4 are inserted. in accordance with the pattern to be produced in the knitted fabric. Pivoted upon a post |B (Figure 2) arranged parallel with the drum axis, is a series of spring-pressed levers |29, fourteen in number (see Figure 1) to agree with the number of tiers of holes ||6, each of which levers has a pointed end I|9 which is located closely adjacent the drum periphery and overlying one of the rows of holes IIB; this end ||9 of the lever willaccordingly be lifted, i. e., moved away from the drum, as the pattern drum rotates, by a cam piece or pieces I I4 present in that row. The other end |2| of each lever |20 has a cam incline |22 formed upon it which, when the pointed end I|9 of said lever is not lifted by a cam piece I I4 in said row of holes is in the path of movement (due to rotation of the needle cylinder) of a butt |23 on a selector |24 in a Aneedle trick |25 in the needle cylinder 18. The selector |29, which will presently be described, is raised by the action of the cam incline |22 on the butt |23. When vthe pointed end I I9 of the lever |29 is lifted by a cam piece Il@ on the pattern drum periphery (see Figure 6) the cam incline |22 on the other end of the leveris removed from the path of the butt |23, and consequently the nselector |25` is not raised. Y

13 of the machine.

A selector |26 is associated with each of the needles |26 (Figure 3) which is concerned in the selecting operation. This selector is located in the needle trick |25 below the usual :needle slider |21, b-ut between each slider |21 and the selector IZA there is situated in the trick |25 a jack |28, presently to be described. In general appearance the selectors resemble the usual needle sliders,

that is to say they are relatively long and thin pieces of metal adapted to be received in and moved to and fro along the needle tricks in the cylinder. Each selecto-r has two butts |23 and |29 of which the butt |29 is in the same relative position on all the selectors, and is employed to return the selector to an initial position should it have been displaced therefrom in the selecting operation. Thus butt |29 for this purpose is acted upon by a cam |3| on the cam box 16. The second butt |23 of the two butts mentioned is in a different position in different selectors, but in any given selector, the position of this butt |23 is such that when the selector is in said initial position the butt |23 4will be engaged by the cam incline |22 on one of the fourteen levers |29, if the pointed end I i9 of that lever is not in engagement with a cam piece i4 on the pattern drum. Near its upper end each selector has a short offset portion |32 extending outwardly from the needle cylinder, followed by an upwardly-extending portion |33, the inner side of which (i. e., the side nearer the needle cylinder) has formed upon it an incline which gives to the selector a somewhat pointed upper end |34. This pointed end is adapted to engage and rock a jack |28 which is situated in the trick immediately above the selector. Each jaok has two butts |35, I 36 adapted to be engaged respectively, by two cam surfaces |31, |38 formed upon a cam block in the cam box The two butts |35, |36, on the jack |28 are at different levels, the upper butt |35 extending outwardly and (at times) over the cam surface |31, and the lower butt |36 projecting upwardly in front of the cam surface |38. Below the lower butt V|35 the jack slopes down- Wardly and inwardly in an incline |39 which is adapted to be engaged by the pointed upper end |34 of the selector; and below the incline |39 on thejack, the jack has a short stem |43, rounded at its bottom end, which normally is situated behind the upper end of the selector, in the recess afforded by the offset portion |32 of the selector.

The function of the jack |28 is to raise a needle slider |21 to a level at which it will come under control of the usual cams in the cam box 16 so that the needle associated with the slider will perform its normal operations. To perform this function the jack |28 is raised by the engagement of its upper butt |35 with the cam surface |31, and lifts the needle slider |21 by engagement of the bottom of said slider by the top end of the jack. Having performed this duty, the jack is later Yreturned to its initial position by a third cam surface o-n the cam block which surface engages a part of the jack between its two butts |35 and |36. When in the selecting operation a needle is not to be lifted as just described, a selector |23 (see Figures 4 and 5) will be raised by thev means previously stated, and its pointed upper end |34 will engage the incline |39 on the jack |23 and rock the jack inwardly and remove its upper butt |35 from over the cam surface |31. Later in the operation of the machine the jack is moved outwardly again by the action Vof the cam surface |33 upon the lower butt |36 of the jack.

Centrifugal action due to rotationof the needle cylinder 18 tends to move th'e'jacks |28 outwardly and thus tends to maintain the upper butt |35 of each jack in full engagement with the cam surface |31. To assist this action the cam surface |31, in cross-section, inclines downwardly and outwardly somewhat, and the lower edge of the upper butt |35 has a corresponding inclination. At the part of the said uppery surface |31, however, at which the jack 28 is moved inwardly by the action of its selector, th'e upper surface |31 of the cam block is substantially horizontal (in cross-section) or even slightly reversely inclined, so as to permit the jack under action of its selector to be moved inward easily at this part of said surface. Immediately following this part of said surface (considered in relation to the direction of rotationA of the needle cylinder) the surface rises a distance sufficient to come in front of the upper butt of a jack that has been pushed Vback by its selector and thus keep that jack in its inward position until it has safely passed the rise on said upper cam surface |31 wh'ich is employed to give to a jack its needleslider-lifting movement. This cam formation, it will be appreciated, completely segregates those jacks which are to remain inoperative from those which are to perform their slider-lifting function.

Among the advantages possessed by a construction according to this invention are the follow- The selectors |24 having only to control the position of the jacks |28 need move but a short distance (say one-sixteenth of an inch) compared with' the relatively longer distance (some quarter of ran inch) which Vthe jacks have to move to ensure that the needle-sliders |21 controlled by them shall properly engage the cams which act upon the needle-sliders; if by accidental movement of a selector |24 a jack that should not have been acted upon is moved inwardly, so that at least its upper butt |35 only just engages the cam surface |31, centrifugal action and the sh'apes of that surface and of the buttzas aforesaid will move the jack outwardly again so that its butt fully engages said surface; the position in which the pattern drum 82 can be placed is variable within relatively Wide limits considering, that the point in the needle circle at which the selectors |24 are moved by the action of the pattern drumneed not of necessity be closely adjacent the point in said circle at which the jacks |23 act upon the needle sliders |21; and the layout of the cam pieces |4 on the periphery of the pattern drum 82 determines which needles shall knit, for, as pointed out hereinbefore, the cam pieces ||4 acting on the pointed ends ||9 of the levers |2|l remove the inclined ends |22 of said levers from the path of butts |23 on the selectors |24 and as a consequence the selectors remain idle, and th'ereby permit a jack |28 to move its needle slider |'21 to a position in which in due course, it reaches the stitch cam.

The two advantages last mentioned are of importance in connection with the multi-feed-point type of machine previously referred to. Thus, in such a machine having two feed points (a main feed point and an additional feed point) a needle-selecting-mechanism according to the present invention can be provided for each feed point. These mechanisms canrbe placed at any con- Venient points in the needle circle (usually towards th'e back of the machine) and each will show by the lay-out of the detachable cam pieces on its pattern drum the needles which are to knit at the particular feed point to which that mechanism is appropriated.

So far the description follows that already given in respect of the knitting machine described and illustrated in the aforementioned prior Patent No. 2,019,396.

In making a hose, half-hose or the like article having a pattern which extends through the leg and foot, it is necessary to stop the pattern in the heel half of the article at, or a few courses before, the beginning of the h'eel in order that the heel may be knitted in plain unpatterned fabric. This, in accordance with the present invention is accomplished by the provision on each selector in the heel half of a butt 200 (see Figures 3 and 8) below the selecting butts |23, and provide for co-operation with b-utts 200, lever 2|0 to operate on those butts at desired times. The lever 2| 0 will operate similarly to, land will be situated below selector levers |20. At the appropriate times lever 2|!) is moved into its operative position and lowers all selectors having butts 200, that is to say all selectors which are below those needles that are intended .to knit the heel. The horizontal dotted line extending from the top of butt 200 in Figure 8 indicates that when lever 2||l is brought into operation the butts will engage the lower sloping face of the lever in order to lower the selectors.

The amount by which th'e selectors are lowered will be approximately equal to the pitch of the selecting butts |23. When these selectors come to the selecting point some of them will be raised in accordance with the pattern set out but this will have no effect as those which would be so raised will be too low to operate their jacks and will in fact be operated by levers |20 which are situated at positions lower than those which would normally operate on the selectors. The needle jacks will consequently remain in the outward position and all the heel needles will be raised to the knitting track.

The needles in the instep half of the machine which are to be selected not to knit during the last course before the heel, are maintained in the low non-knitting track during knitting of the heel. The selectors for the instep needles are all provided with an additional butt 220 [below the normal selecting butts |23 (see Figures 3 and 8) and for these additional butts 220 there is a further additional lever 23|), the sloping upper face of which will, when the lever is moved to its operative position, engage beneath the additional butts 220 thereby serving to raise the selectors having those additional butts. Consequently, when lever 230 is operative all the instep needle selectors will be raised and their jacks will be pushed to the inward position so that they will not be lifted by their cams. Consequently any needles in the instep half which are in the low cam track will remain there.

In Figure 7, the main feed point is situated at a position indicated by a line 300 and a second feed point will be situated at the positionvof line 3| 0. The main stitch cam is shown at 320 whereas cam 330 is the stitch cam for knitting in the reverse direction when making the heel. A stitch cam for the second feed point l3||l is shown at 34B. feed point is out of action is indicated by dotted line 350. When knitting is taking place at the second feed point 3|0, the bolt cam 360 is brought into operation to lower the needles so that they will be engaged by stitch cam 34|).k Cam 310 serves to raise those needles which have knitted The normal knitting track when the second at the second feed point so that they will consequently follow track 35i. During patterning, cam 370 is withdrawn and certain of the needles take the low track 354 whereas the remainder are raised by their jacks (by appropriate 4pattern selection) and follow track 35|. The knitting track for the forward direction of heel knitting is the same as for normal knitting lbut, in reverse direction the knitting track is indicated by line 352. The instep needles which have been utilised to knit the course immediately preceding the commencement of the heel are raised by cam 380, which engages the long butts only, to the upper idle or high non-knitting track 353. Bolt cams 376 and 359 are withdrawn during all patterning and during the knitting of the heel, and those needles which have not knitted in the course immediately preceding the commencement of the heel will remain in the low non-knitting track indicated by line 355. Cam All!) is fixed so that it misses all short knitting butts but engages long knitting butts. During the. knitting of the heel, short butts only are in the knitting track in one direction, and in the reverse direction the short butts are raised by cams M9 and 420. When long butts are raised by cam 4l@ they are lowered again by cam 599 and so remain in the low non-knitting track 355. Cams 43B and 449 are jack lifting cams and the jacks which are raised by them raise their needles across the gap left by the withdrawal of cams 390 and 370.

A modified form of selector is shown in Figures 9 and 10 by means of which patterning is stopped in the heel portion by providing those selectors 224 which are under the heel needles with longer lifting butts 225 than will be provided for those in the instep half. The llengths of the latter terminate in the position of the dotted line 228. In order to stop patterning a selector lifting cam 227 is moved radially close to the needle cylinder as shown in Figure 9 so that although some of the selectors will be .pushed in by the action of one or other of the levers 20v (which in this case are formed to engage the ends of selector butts 228 to press them in instead of to lift them) this will have no effect as regards the long butt selectors as the long butts 225 will still be in a position to be engaged by the lifting cam 227 although the shorter butts 225 will not be so engaged. In Figure 10 the lifting cam 227 is shown as moved a slight distance radially outwards away from the cylinder so that any selectors with either long or short butts that may have been pressed inwardly byl levers |29 will now be raised because both longand short butts 225 and 226 will then pass clear of and behind the lifting cam 221. Each of the selectors 224 will be provided with an extra butt 228 which is additional to those required for patterning in order that the same conditions may be achieved as in the case of the previously described construction with the aid of butts 29B. These additional butts 228 will be provided on all selectors in the instep half and an additional lever l2! will be provided to co-operate with these additional butts similar in this function to lever Zil of the previously described con struction.

When lever IZI is in its operative position, all the selectors in the instep half, which selectors have short butts 226 will be pushed in and wil consequently not be raised by cam 227.

We claim: n Y

1. In a circular knitting machine, a needle cylinder having tricks therein, needles located in said tricks,r cam 'means to effect the knitting motion of said needles, a series of jacks associated with said needles to vary their operative relation with said cam means, a jack-operating cam, a series of selector elements each corresponding to one of said jacks to vary the operative relation of said jack with said jack-operating cam, pat'- terning lmeans to actuate selectively said selectors, and heel-knitting control means to select the needles into three groups for heel-knitting operations,'to Vdirect some of said needles into a low non-knitting track, some of said needles to a high non-knitting track and other needles to the normal knitting'track, said heel-knitting control means including elements acting through the selectors.

'2..The subject matter of claim 1 comprising needle selecting mechanism of the type described, wherein the selectors for the heel and instep needles are provided with butts which are additional to those required lforl patterning and which are differentiated from one another as between those for the heel .and those for the instep needles respectively, in combination with means selectively operatedto co-operate with said additional butts at required times for the purpose of group separation of the needles.

3. The subject matter of claim 1 comprising needle selecting mechanism of the type described, wherein the selectors for the heel and instep needles are provided with butts which are additional to those required for patterning and which are differentiated from one another as between those for the heel and those for the instep needles respectively, in combination with means selectively operated to co-operate with said additional butts at'required times 4for the purpose 0f group separation ofthe needles, the additional butts being combined with correspondingly additional selector actuating levers whereby one group of selectors will be raised and the other group lowered by the operation of their associated levers.

4. The subject matter of claim 1 comprising needle selecting mechanism of the type described, wherein the selectors for the heel and instep needles are provided with butts which are additional to'those required for patterning and which are differentiated from one another as between those for the heel and those forl the instep needles respectively, in combination with means selectively operated to` co-operate with said additional butts at required times for the purpose of group separation Vof the needles, the additional butts for the heel needle selectors being of diierent lengths from those for the instep needle selectors, and the selector actuating cam being movable radially on the machine to engage or miss either one or both sets of butts as required.

CHARLES FREDERICK MANGER. GEORGE ALFRED BUSWELL, ROLAND PEBERDY.

REFERENCES CTED The following references are of record in the le of' this patent: A

UNITED srA'rEs PATENTS 

